Purse Palooza#3 - Rock ‘n Romance Aragon Bag

I’m SO excited to share my newest bag with you called The Aragon Bag by Sara at Sewsweetness!  This is my 3rd entry for Purse Palooza and maybe not my last since I have SO many bags on my to do list!!  Even if I don’t win one of the prizes – my reward will be scratching some of those to do bags off the proverbial sewing to do list!!

I made this bag with Artgallery Fabrics Rock ‘n Romance by Pat Bravo and will be taking it on our vacation which just happens to be a short 12 days from today!  We will be going on an Eastern Caribbean cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale and we are extremely excited about it!! 

thanks for stopping by to check out my newest bag!

Purse Palooza 2013–Purse #2

Here is my 2nd entry for this year’s Purse Palooza using Erin’s Two Zip Hipster pattern.  I really love this purse; it is a great travel purse and since we are going on our cruise in just 28 days from now (SO EXCITED!), I knew I had to get working on it!  I purchased the fabric Moonflower by Benartex at my LQS The Cotton Cupboard.  I love flowers and this was the perfect one for me because I wanted a blue purse that would go well with jeans.  This purse took about 6 hours to make, not too bad and since it was the 2nd one I made, it came together better than the first.

I hope you are checking out the great reviews of purses on Sew Sweetness blog, this was one featured this week.  There are also great giveaways, not to mention great prize packages for the winners!  I hope one of my purses wins but if not, at least by the time it’s over, I would have knocked some purses out that have been on my to do list for a while. 

Up next: A Huntington Hobo for my sister whose birthday is the day after Christmas, unless I decide to make myself something else, lol! 

thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Brown Huntington Hobo purse–Pursepalooza 2013

Hi there – long time no post!!  I was so excited to see that Sara from Sew Sweetness was hosting another Pursepalooza this year.  I enjoyed participating last year (and was so happy to win a prize too) that I had to participate again because I am always on the lookout to make another purse!  I have had this fabric I think since February that I got at The Cotton Cupboard and it ended up making the perfect Fall purse for me!  This fabric is Kaffee Fassett Gothic in Brown *swoon*

I was  please to find the perfect coordinating fabrics for the pockets, lining, straps, bottom accent sides and zippers to really pull out my favorite colors in the main fabric.

 

Then I looked through my stash to find the perfect kaleidoscope zipper pull that I got at Zipit to complete my purse.  This is my 3rd version of the Huntington Hobo bag to make and I am happy to report that each one keeps coming out better than the previous one.  My next one will be a gift for my sister Deana’s birthday which is December 26. 

Thanks for stopping by to see what I made ~ hope you have a wonderful day!

Hometown Quilt moving along

Here is a little progress on the quilt I am making for my sister as a housewarming gift!  I have 8 blocks done and this is just 4 of them.  Sorry for the bad picture, had to use my phone because my husband has the camera today and he’s not home right now. 

I love this design – so glad I found a great tutorial for it online on A Quilt Story.  I am thinking all the time about what quilt design to do, I am thinking ivory thread in just the ivory sections.  I know I will be practicing and using one of Angela Walter’s designs since I purchased her book Free-Motion Quilting.  It is a great resource!  I just go back & forth about whether I will quilt it at home or visit my LQS to do it on the long arm. 

Have you ever listened to the podcasts on All People Quilt radio with Pat Sloan?  I love listening to it at work, I have pretty much listened to them all already, and usually jot down notes of blogs I want to visit, or tips I want to remember.  Well, the other day I realized they have great videos (click to see them) on there as well so I started to watch those too.  Learned a great tip about reducing the bulk at my seams on my blocks- by pressing correctly and clipping your seam allowances on the intersections. Watch the Pressing to prevent bulk video to see!  Of course  I never would have thought of that on my own.  This is my 5th quilt and I have a feeling I will still be learning new stuff even when I am on my 25th quilt!  So far each one has been so different. 

Friday Night Sew in Results

It has been forever since I participated in Friday Night Sew In and I’ve missed it!  Thanks to Wendy for of Sugarlane Quilts for sponsoring in Heidi's absence.  Of course, there were many Friday nights over the past year I still sewed, but just didn’t bother with signing up or committing to do a blog post about it.  I thought it would be fun to get back into it since I started to blog again.  My oldest sister just purchased her first home and I am so thrilled about it!  Her and her family are so excited to have a bigger house and the kids to have their own rooms!  I look forward to my next visit so I can see it in person. 
I decided for her housewarming gift, to make her a quilt using Sweetwater’s Hometown fabric.  I actually won 4 charm packs a few years ago and I also purchased binding fabric and the backing fabric shortly after that had just been sitting around.  I think the fabric will be perfect because she said she was going to be decorating her house in the cranberry color that is featured in the collection. 
The hardest part, I believe in making a quilt, is figuring out the design.  This will be my 5th quilt and I am excited to start working on it. (I still have to share my 3rd and 4th quilts with y’all and will soon).  I spent hours perusing my quilt patterns and free ones online.  I almost decided to just sew the 5” squares randomly and make it simple, buuut decided against it because I wanted it to be more interesting than that.  So I am making HSTs.  The stack in the photo is what I completed on Friday night.  I have since been working on more during the weekend and have the whole stack sewn on one side of the center line.  Since I decided on the HSTs, I think I will have enough leftovers to make her more than just a quilt, perhaps a throw pillow and maybe a table runner and dish towels.  That’s my goal. 
In other news: We went to see Pacific Rim in 3D with DH’s coworkers yesterday, it was surprisingly good.  The 3D was amazing.  Not sure I would have liked the movie as much if it was in 2D.  We love going to the movies, even thought about going again today even but we have a lot of housework to do, so we may not. 
Thanks for stopping by – hope you have a wonderful week!

Rock 'n Romance Summer Top

I'm not sure who is still reading my blog but hey if you're still out there - hi after EXACTLY a whole year of no posts!  If you are reading this post, I would LOVE to hear from you, so please leave a comment saying hello.  It would be nice to know I'm talking to someone after all this time!

There's no guarantee I will post again on a regular basis because I have to admit, this last year has been really nice but was filled with many ups & downs.  For those who follow me on Facebook, you will know what I am talking about.  If not, it's not something I really want to chat about.  Just know that everything is all right, life is good. I am blessed.

Last weekend we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary - so crazy it's been that long!!  Since I had a 4 1/2 day weekend, I celebrated it by sewing ALL weekend and it was awesome!  I made halter tops out of 4 of my t-shirts, took in 2 tops that were too big on me, sewed 3 tops from scratch (no pattern), made 2 headbands and an infinity scarf!

Here is one of the tops I made from this post by The Daily Stitch No Pattern Required Summer Top tutorial. It was easy to follow but I ended up making a mistake with my cutting and had to 'add on' some other fabric from the Rock 'n Romance fabric I had by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics.  I like it like that though! Then, I ended up putting too much fabric in the bust area and had to take some in with darts so it wasn't so full but it's still too full.  It is so comfy though, so that's o.k.!  I also made a matching braided headband because I just can't stand to have my hair touch my face.

We ended up going to get pedicures (I was not sure John would want to do it, but he was game and sure enjoyed it too).  He picked out OPI Don't Mess with OPI green for my toes and ended up painting his as well - lol.  Afterward, we went to a nice Indian restaurant we had been wanting to try for a while now.  It was delicious.  Afterward, we visited his dad & stepmom since we hadn't seen them in a while.  

I'm thinking of not posting on this blog anymore since I don't have any plans to continue stamping and this blog was primarily about stamping and the serenity I got in doing so.  To be honest, I got burned out which is one reason I quit design work about a year & a half go.  I simply was not enjoying it anymore.  My new blog will be generic and not specific to any craft I do because I do like to dabble in so many things!!  

So once again, please let me know you're out there still!  Thanks for reading.  Feel free to find me on Facebook or Instagram if you would like to keep up with my life (I post there more)